Eyebrows McGee is a young woman living in the emotional heartland of America: Peoria, that infamous bellwether constantly cited by the clueless culturati, as in, "But will it play in Peoria?" Eyebrows gives you a ground-level view of what's actually playing in Peoria.

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

I'm Benchin' the Bar, Baby! I'm Benchin' the Bar!

Mr. McGee and I joined a gym. The Peoria County Bar Association inaugurated a "wellness" committee, I think because the bar has decided that as a profession, we are fat. (I kid; the stuff coming out of the wellness committee is actually my favorite PCBA stuff.) Anyway, they got several local gyms to offer discounted enrollment fees or whatever for PCBA members, so we picked one that was convenient for us and had low monthly rates, which turned out to be Cardinal Fitness, which, upon touring, we liked quite a bit. We decided on a gym for a couple of reasons, primarily the wide choice of weight machines that's hard to replicate at home, and my respiratory intolerace for outdoor aerobic activities when there are allergens in the air. Which is, like, always, except when it's too darn cold to be outside at all.

The original idea was that we would go together, but that mostly only happens on weekends, because my husband is one of those people who wakes up happy to be alive and wants to hit the gym at 5:30 a.m., whereas I don't actually want to be sharing the PLANET with anyone else until at least 8 a.m. I prefer to go midday when my brain hits a wall and YouTube starts to look a lot better than working.

Now, we do not have cable at home, so one of the biggest perks for me at Cardinal Fitness is that every treadmill has a personal cable TV. (And, I must point out, our gym membership is cheaper than a cable subscription would be, and then I can only watch cable while actively working out, so it's probably better for me anyway, because the last time I had cable I'd end up hypnotized in front of Animal Planet for hours at a time.) So what I've been doing -- this is absolutely true -- is arranging my workout schedule around Star Trek: The Next Generation reruns on Spike TV. It's currently on season one so Riker has that butt-chin thing going on. Rarely have a man's looks been so improved by a beard.

I was there a couple days ago, lifting weights (you probably wouldn't guess this about me, but I love lifting weights. Hate cardio. Love weight training.), and this dude was kinda checking me out, but then I realized he was spending about 10 times as much time checking HIMSELF out in the mirror as he was spending checking me out, so fortunately no crappy gym pickup lines were in the offing -- no woman could ever compete with his reflection. He was one of those dudes who lovingly watches his muscles contract while doing curls a couple feet from the mirror, the better to admire himself.

Anyway, I've never been a devotee of regular workouts (I'm hoping to do better this time, with cable TV to motivate me!), so I'm pretty wimpy. Midday it's usually me and all the gym junkies. They bench 200 lbs. I bench the bar. And I'm proud.

I am a yoga fanatic, but I got into it after my first son was born because I knew I needed exercise, and yoga also serves (for me) as a form of relaxation because of the meditative aspect. Now, I'm addicted and I do it because I can feel the difference between days when I haven't done yoga in the morning and when I have - my body is far more achey and tight when I haven't done it.